In general, as recording materials for an optical information recording medium, organic recording materials mainly consisting of dye and inorganic recording materials mainly consisting of metal have been used. These recording materials change (decomposition, phase change or the like) by making use of energy obtained from absorption of a recording beam, to thereby form recording spots. For applying this principle of recording spot formation, it is necessary that irradiation with the recording beam provides a recording material with energy required to raise the temperature of the recording material to a temperature at which the recording material undergoes decomposition or a phase change.
In recent years, as a technique for greatly increasing the capacity of an optical information recording medium, study has been made on a three-dimensional recording in which information is recorded in multiple layers of a single recording medium. In the three-dimensional recording, it is necessary that the light absorption ratio of the recording layers be set to a smaller value in order to allow the recording beam to reach deeper recording layers. However, according to the recording materials used for the conventional optical information recording medium, if the light absorption ratio is lowered, the recording layer will not receive sufficient energy from the recording beam, which results in insufficient recording sensitivity.
Patent Literature 1 discloses other recording methods, in which in place of the recording material mainly consisting of dye which undergoes a change, a polymer binder which contains dye is used in a recording material, and the polymer binder undergoes a change by receiving energy that is absorbed by the dye. It is thought that the optical information recording medium disclosed in Patent Literature 1 requires the absorption ratio of the recording layer at least not smaller than 20% in order to provide a recess portion at an illuminated portion in the recording material.